Few things match the beauty of a vintage romance, a petal of truth that brushed our cheeks at Sunday morning’s highly anticipated executive session for Fox.

The scent of testosterone-laden platonic love danced in the air as Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori took the stage with new entertainment president Kevin Reilly, and we witnessed Guy Love Between Two Guys.

Triumphant music blared over the speakers as they sat down, and while munching on M&M’s provided for us in eco-friendly cardboard containers (more on that later) we eagerly waited to crunch through the hard candy shell NBC used to obfuscate the dark and bitter truth of what really happened to Reilly over Memorial Day weekend.

As you may or may not know, that’s when the Peacock didn’t fire Reilly but, er, made him available — a turn of events he discovered via an anonymous e-mail that was simultaneously leaked to the Deadline Hollywood Daily blog, the No. 1 destination for Hollywood executives to be blindsided by news that they’re being made available.

If you’re into industry gossip, by the way, Nikki Finke’s work is a thing of beauty.

But back to the play-by-play of Reilly and Liguori’s renewal of vows, aka Fox’s TCA executive session. Reilly was cheerful and upbeat as he gracefully bobbed and weaved around probing queries about The Unpleasantness, which is how we’ll refer to his being made available from here on out. He and Liguori preferred to talk about the ways in which their Wonder Twin powers shall activate now that Liguori has brought his best friend on board at Fox.

“This relationship has worked very, very well because, first of all, we can laugh at each other,” Liguori said. “We have certainly healthy egos, but we can –“

Reilly interjected with, “His has gotten much, much bigger since cable, I can tell you that!”

“Yes, and not stopping,” Liguori continued. “We know who we are. We know how we complement each other. I think the single biggest thing that Kevin and I share, other than a specific creative DNA, is just kind of a bit of a life philosophy which is: let’s succeed and go home to our families… Frankly, that’s why I really enjoyed working with Kevin when we were at FX, which is a way smaller pond to be playing in.

“I just have to tell you,” he added, “over the course of the last three weeks, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in the offices within FOX. It’s comfortable. It’s collaborative. The energy is raised up in the place. It’s like an old love. We finish each other’s sentences.”

Reilly was floored. “Wow.”

“Maybe that was a bit of a stretch,” Liguori said.

Reilly: “Should we move the table out from between us?”

Liguori: “Yes.”

Several of us dabbed at the corners of our eyes before someone bluntly asked Reilly to tell us how The Unpleasantness went down.

“You know, no one’s really ever fired in Hollywood, are they? And no show is ever really canceled,” he said with a grin. “You can pick whatever trade euphemism you want. I segued. I thought about it over the holidays. I wanted to explore other opportunities. You know, I wanted to spend more time with my family, which I did for three days.

“All I can say is however I exited, it actually ended up being very equitable all the way around. There was no sort of pettiness, and it worked out.”

Reilly and Liguori, the men who laid the foundation for FX to become the powerhouse cable channel that it is today, did terrific work when they got together before. We have them to thank for “The Shield” and “Nip/Tuck,” and the bet is that following an adjustment period — one that, we hope, won’t include this fall’s shaky lineup, which Liguori put in place without Reilly’s assistance — we should expect to see great things.

Although the popular counter to all this rosy bliss is the cold reality that Reilly couldn’t pull NBC out of fourth place, leading to The Unpleasantness, the Peacock was tumbling downhill before he got there following a run of several miserable seasons helmed by Reilly’s former boss, Jeff Zucker. Zucker bailed out before his career imploded, and threw Reilly into the entertainment president job to be the fall guy.

What’s really amazing is that during this difficult period at NBC, Reilly still managed to mine a few gems: “The Office,” “Heroes,” “30 Rock” and “Friday Night Lights” are his shows. Now NBC has those shows — but Peter and Kevin have each other again, as well as the status of being lords over the top-rated home of the competition-slaying “American Idol,” the still-potent “House” and fan favorite “24.”

Someone pointed out that in coming to Fox, Reilly brings with him an intimate knowledge of NBC’s inner workings, to which he replied, “I prefer that I had an intimate knowledge of ABC’s schedule, but on a competitive level, sure, that’s going to be cool for a few months while it’s relevant.”

Switching gears for a moment: Fox officially announced that Cherry Jones would indeed join the cast to play the president next season, which was a lot less surprising than “24’s” goal to become the first television production to take steps throughout the season to render its season finale “carbon neutral.”

To reduce its impact on Gaia, “24” is pledging to introduce biodiesel fuels to power generators and production vehicles; run all on-stage production on “green power”; rewire a stage to use electric power as opposed to the diesel-generated juice it’s using now; and integrate hybrid vehicles into the production fleet.

The writers also intend to incorporate themes concerning global warming and carbon-emission reduction into storylines. Ponder that for a second: “No, Jack! Dousing that terrorist in gasoline and threatening to light him on fire won’t solve anything, and think of the emissions! Here, use this bamboo skewer. It’s light, it’s from a renewable resource and you can shove it under his fingernails. Like so!”

Yep, thinking green is fine and dandy, but if “24” really wants to make a global impact, it’ll reconsider the way it portrays torture. Then it’ll recycle a few of its writers.

As for how the new villain will fit into the show’s green strategy while building upon the game-changing challenge Jack faced last season — multiple suitcase bombs — my vote is for squirrels trained in espionage and rigged to explode. Preferably British, because as I understand it, they are the most cunning.

That’s something we can worry about later in the season — besides, we’re still at a joyful occasion.
For now we pronounced Reilly and Liguori Homies for Life, and hope they’ll kick some big bird butt, although the men were not at all concerned with that. “Our sights are not set on the No. 4 network,” Liguori said. “Our sights are set on the No. 1 network and creating a distance between us and the No. 2 network.”

Fair enough. Congratulations, Reilly and Liguori, you wacky kids … and as you embark upon this new era in your lives, please consider this song to be a heartfelt gift.

Keep reading for the fall premiere schedule, taken from a Fox press release.